A Gaza City resident told an Israeli officer that Hamas is preventing civilians from evacuating south ahead of Israel’s planned ground operation, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.
The military said it has identified increasing attempts by the terror group to keep residents inside the city as human shields, using both propaganda and physical pressure. According to a recording released by the military, the resident said: "We want to go south but Hamas are waiting for us on the way. They tell people: go back home, there is no evacuation, go back, go back - and the people are scattering."
"People are really afraid," the man continued. "Some of them are going through side streets and looking for alternative ways. Hamas is standing on the seashore near Al-Nablsi and in other places, preventing the population from moving along the main roads."
Listen to the conversation:
Conversation between an IDF district coordination and laison (CLA) officer and a Gaza City resident
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) estimated that about 70,000 of roughly 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City had evacuated southward in the past 72 hours, even before the official start of the planned military operation. The military expects the number to rise once ground operations expand.
“There are infrastructures in the south of the Strip sufficient for up to two million Gazans in accordance with international law," a senior defense official said. "We will enable a humanitarian response in central and southern Gaza. Alongside moving the population south for their protection, efforts will continue to adapt humanitarian infrastructure in the south — including transferring facilities from north to south, repairing essential infrastructure, developing new capacities, and expanding the scope of aid trucks without quantitative limits, with an emphasis on food, medical supplies, hygiene products and shelter equipment.”
The operation in Gaza City will proceed gradually, with the pace determined in part by the rate of civilian evacuation, the IDF said. Military officials expressed concern that Hamas could move live hostages into Gaza City and disperse them to act as human shields at strongholds. The group has suggested such a tactic would tie the hostages’ fate directly to Israel’s planned takeover of the city.
In his last speech before being killed last week, Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned that Israeli operations in Gaza City would endanger the hostages, saying the group would keep them “as much as possible” alongside its fighters.
The military has instructed its forces to exercise extreme caution in entering buildings, adopting a systematic demolition approach to clear structures.
Ahead of the operation, Israeli officials acknowledged shortages of spare parts for tanks and armored personnel carriers after what they called “a long war the likes of which we have never experienced.” They said the issue is being managed according to priorities and linked it in part to international arms embargoes.
“There are embargoes against us even before the German ban,” one official said, referring to Berlin’s decision to halt the supply of tank engines. “We are working to find alternative solutions.”
The army also said it would enter the operation with about 60% to 70% of bulldozers operational, as many had been damaged by anti-tank fire. Half of 132 new bulldozers purchased from the United States have already arrived, and beginning next month, three private Israeli firms will repair and maintain them to support the troops, the IDF said.